It’s been a fine year for Michigan State considering all of the problems of last year, but it’s been a bit of a struggle down the stretch for an offense that’s not exploding.

Alternating wins and losses over the last five games, will the Spartans be just flaky enough to keep the pattern going and lose to Rutgers on the road?

Already off to a bowl game, Michigan State is now jockeying for position. But for all the good things that have happened this season, and all of the positives, losing to Rutgers would drag everything down.

Losers of three of their last four, it hasn’t been pretty for the Scarlet Knights, but they get a shot at a five-win season with a victory – and hope going into 2018.

One Reason Why Michigan State Will Win

The Michigan State offense might be struggling, but that’s nothing compared to the problems the Rutgers O is having.

The Scarlet Knights have been outscored 76-6 over the last two games, and have only scored more than 14 points once in the last five games.

The big problem? There’s absolutely no passing game, with Rutgers trying to find anything that works, but failing to hit more than 46% of its passes for the last three weeks.

Rutgers has just two touchdown passes over the last eight games.

Load up and stop the run, embrace the stall-ball style, score a little bit early, and get out with a win. But …

One Reason Why Rutgers Will Win

It’s not like the Spartan attack is lighting things up.

It’s had to face a whole slew of solid defenses, but the O hasn’t been able to do anything consistently well, failing to score more than 18 points six times in the last nine games.

Rutgers has to play to its strengths. Try to do anything possible to get an early lead, grind out the clock with the running game, and slow this thing down to a dead stop.

Michigan State is third in the nation in time of possession – it’s not going anywhere in a big hurry.

Shorten the game, and stay within range in the fourth quarter, and hope for a big mistake.

What’s Going To Happen

But here’s the problem for Rutgers – Michigan State’s run defense is fantastic.

The overall D has been solid this year, but no one’s doing much of anything well on the ground. Since Rutgers can’t throw the ball a lick, that’s going to be a problem.

The Spartans aren’t going to take any chances, they’ll be methodical and efficient, and they’ll get out with a stress-free win.